Wednesday, October 28, 2015

After having once lived in a rent
stabilized NYC apartment I totally get it. You have neighbors, some weird, some
adorable, and some even are both. In this truly delightful look at what it
means to have a paper-thin wall dividing you from heaven knows who, or what, we
meet a lovely young couple who are trying to work out their creative and
amorous lives by relocating from the West Coast to the Big Apple. Then, yikes,
they happen to have a truly strange next-door neighbor.

Or is he really so strange?
Isn’t he rather a darling? Is that a sense of humor and a compassion for
mankind disguised as a dork? You will have to go and see for yourself. Just be glad
to know this NO EXIT has a happier conclusion than Sartre's grim tale.

Playwright Jonathan Caren
takes a delight in revealing there might be a dork inside each of us, only some
are more disguised than others. There is fish-loving Lilly (Corryn Cummins)
with a bad case of writers block; macho Silicon Valley guy Steven (Lucas
Near-Verbrugghe) teetering on the brink of creative despair, and into their
midst comes lumbering giant Mark (Tim Cummings) clutching a manuscript and a
loving if vengeful heart.

Under Bart DeLorenzo’s sparkling
direction we are joyfully drawn into their lives. The artfully done double
apartment set is by Stephanie Kerley Schwartz, lit by Chu-Hsuan Chang, with
sound by John Zalewski. Costumes by E.B. Brooks.

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Playwright Allen Barton
has the gift of creating real people in relationships and situations that we
recognize in our own lives. Far more than a diatribe against Scientology, this
is a nearly tragic look at how all organized religions, by their very essence, separate
people. Two stories overlap and prove this point, one with terrible sadness,
the other with a fearful warning. To be a sane thinking person in a mad world is
obviously a major problem in our own society today.

A man (Bo Foxworth) seeks
his lost daughter who was sucked into a cult at age 15 after her mother was
killed in a car accident that was his fault. He tries to ingratiate himself
into the cult and in the beginning finds serenity and an easing of his burden
of guilt. Then as the tentacles grow stronger and more obvious he has to decide
if his love for his daughter is stronger than his fear of the machine.

The first act is deeply
moving as the man is embraced by an elderly music teacher (Dennis Nollette) who
helps draw him back to sanity. The bond between them is strong, yet it must be
disconnected.

The daughter (Carter Scott), now a young wife, and pregnant, deeply
loves her brainwashed young husband (Luke Cook). She longs to escape the same
tentacles but, when she faces down the Chairman (Everette Wallin), she must be
disconnected.

How that is managed
becomes the alarming second act. The only false note is two monologues that spell
out what we already grasp and nearly wreck the emotional impact of the play.

Superbly directed by Joel
Polis and produced by Gary Grossman of Skylight Theatre Company.

At the Beverly Hills Playhouse,
254 South Robertson Blvd., Beverly Hills, though November 8. Tickets:
213-761-7061 or www.skylighttix.com.

Saturday, October 17, 2015

A quixotic Bertolt Brecht
scholar (Davey Johnson) is being terminated by his university, and his exit
interview is with a deeply religious woman (Catie LeOrisa) who praises the Lord
no matter what evil befalls. Their scenes are cleverly written, and well
performed, but interspersed by a dubious running gag of a lone gunman shooting
offstage. There are sacred cows, for sure, but school massacres are hardly food
for comedy.

It was like watching
Saturday Night Live with a group of extraordinarily talented performers doing a
series of numbers, some brilliant others asinine, with a screeching bunch of
cheerleaders as openers that almost had me running for the serene Hollywood outdoors.

Perhaps the best skit was
a Catholic priest (Rich Hutchman), Irish and affable enough to be a man of the
cloth, who chastised the professor for losing his faith. Another delightful
sketch was a self-loving TV host (Wayne Wilderson) giving notes to a bewildered
guest (Jocelyn O’Keefe) before the TV cameras rolled.

All the actors deserve
applause, but the show was confusing as it leaped from farce, to an
indictment of hypocrisy, to a slap against religious people. Perhaps my sense
of humor is skewed but when the gunman finally appeared it was disturbing to
realize that anything is grist for a laugh nowadays.

Written by William
Missouri Downs, directed by Sirena Irwin, and produced by Andrea Hutchman and Craig
Anton for Buzzworks Theater Company..

Thursday, October 8, 2015

Remember where you were when the verdict in the O.J. murder case came
down, and your reaction? Playwright David McMillan takes us back 20 years to a
Los Angeles neighborhood where a group of people, black and white, await the
verdict, each with their own expectations.

You’ll be riveted as you take this journey
with them and perhaps surprised at the contradictory reactions. These are all
friendly, civilized folk, tolerant of each others differences, although consciously
aware of them. Yet, while one young woman vomits at the ‘not guilty’ decision,
another dances. How this is possible is the theme of this profoundly moving
play.

All await the decision to the 9-month trial they’ve been following. At
first the analysis are light-hearted – after all who could possibly doubt the verdict
– it’s only after the decision is read out that the explosion happens and the definition
of justice is under scrutiny.

Under Keith Szarabajka’s brilliant direction, McMillan’s compassionate view
of people who are not racists, but in
some deep way are separated by race, is explored. Produced by Stephen Burleigh for Ensemble Studio
Theatre/LA.

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

What is a man willing to
suffer for money? What depths of degradation will he go before waking to the fact
that he is wretchedly unhappy, even with a pocketful of cash. In this engrossing
one-man show, John Cox takes us on his personal journey to enlightenment through
back-breaking work. This young man’s search for meaning, after an abusive
childhood, leads him to pursue the goal of $$$ earned within the confines of a
brutal world.

Months at sea capturing
and sorting fish soon endows him with a small fortune in cash. The ultimate
goal is the real catch – become a Captain and after 11 months at sea you go home
with half a million. When someone who matters to him says the old cliché ‘money doesn’t buy happiness’ he wonders
if he’s been suckered into a false dream.

Under Michael Arabian’s
dynamic direction, Cox creates a number of people who influenced his life: the
snarling captain who had only contempt for his workers; the happy-go-lucky
shipmate who wasted his life ashore and was wasted by the ship itself, even momentarily
the step-father who beat him.

Also the child psychologist who taught a broken boy
how to survive, and the young woman who lifted a mirror so he saw his life
pattern.

About Me

Born in UK, started in theater as actress on Broadway then playwright/director in UK & the USA, Broadway Critic for The Hollywood Reporter in the 1980s. Artistic director at theatres in NY and Hollywood. Wrote musicals with ASCAP composer-lyricist husband, Ralph Martell, all produced in NY & California. For 10 years directed outdoor Shakespeare in Manhattan through NY Dept Cultural Affairs. Play HARRIET TUBMAN HERSELF starring Christine Dixon, now in its 9th year. Contest winner for plays in Okla, W, Virginia & Texas. Books CLASSICS 4 KIDS and SHAKESPEARE IN AN HOUR published by Shakespeare, Inc. AWARDS: National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) playwriting grant; 5 grants for children's musicals and 8 NY/DCA for Shakespeare productions. Member DGA, AEA & LA Press Club. Lectures on "The Impact of Yiddish Theatre on American Theatre." Co-founder NY Women in Film & TV. Monthly theater column in NOT BORN YESTERDAY California senior paper. Email: dramatist2006@yahoo.com